Ireland

It was pretty neat to go from sub-freezing Oslo to sunny Dublin and Ireland. I’ve been so used to brown, leafless landscapes that seeing Ireland was really a treat. I had forgotten how green and juicy plants growing plants could be. Combined with daylight savings and the warmth, it really felt like Spring had finally come.

This past weekend I visited Clancy and her friend Nora Robinson who are studying abroad in Dublin at UCD. As soon as I got outside of the airport I shed the multiple layers I had been wearing for the Oslo weather. It was glorious to finally wear just a t-shirt. I had three full days planned for Ireland, but at the time of arrival I actually had no idea what the agenda was for that time. I had put Clancy in charge of all the planning, which was a fun change up after meticulously planning out all of my previous trips. This polar relationship between impulse and planned traveling is something I’ve thought about a lot while I’m here, especially with my friend Lauren Kaija who’s over in New Zealand. Some travelers like to simply journey at a whim. When the current city or woofing job gets dull, they move on to something new. Others like to plan out each day with a solid schedule. They have knowledge of every place they want to hit in the general area they’re in and don’t leave much wiggling room. I’m a pretty organized person so I err on the side of planned travels, which tends to be more budget conscious since booking flights and hostels last minute is costly. I also don’t really like going on planned tours; the thought of some person forcing me to go places doesn’t really meld well with the exploring side of my personality. This trip to Ireland definitely challenged some of these preconceptions I’ve held, for it was one of my favorite countries I’ve visited thus far in my travels.

After meeting up at Clancy’s dorm and chilling out for a bit, she and Nora took me out to visit the city, including the Trinity College grounds and Grafton Street. I have real big love of Scottish and Irish Folk music, instilled in me from my dad blasting bag pipe/fife and drum music since before I can remember. Days of watching my dad work outside in our yard with his shitty blue CRV blasting jigs are pretty much how I envision a perfect summer, so walking around Grafton street and the college grounds hearing this music everywhere with the warm weather was pretty damn unreal. The people in Dublin were much more lively then those in Oslo, you could just see it in people walking around and interacting with one another. Maybe it was the fact that it wasn’t raining and it was super warm, but the people were definitely provided a stark contrast with those in Oslo.

After having a few drinks back in Clancy’s dorm room, that night us three heading out to the city to the pubs. We bumbled around for quite a bit before we finally managed to get to the main strip with a lot of lively pubs. Clancy and Nora managed to somehow get us into a 21 and over pub which was packed, which we drank at for a bit before leaving and heading to the Temple Bar. They were playing some awesome live music in there and we managed to get to the front of the crowd. Listening and clapping with the huge crowd around us is something I won’t forget anytime soon.

We spent the next day at a harbor town called Howth, but the real adventure came on our last day, spent up in Northern Ireland (UK) at the Giant’s Causeway. Clancy bought us $30 tour bus tickets for the full day trip. I expected a long drive up to the causeway, following a guide the whole time while there, and then a long drive back. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The small little van-bus first zoomed us up to Belfast, which we spent an hour roaming around the city. I ended up randomly sitting next to a homeless-looking man outside a Zara shop who had a bunch of bags with groceries and books. While I ate some KFC, the man began to tell me (more like lecture) about the numerous mathematical and scientific fields he had studied over the years, including psychology, biology, pharmacology, history, theology, physics, dual locality theory, thermodynamics, and probably 15 other topics. He would recite legit pages of the topics he was talking about, and I quickly realized he had some sort of mental issue, because his memory was flawless. Halfway through the talk he told me that he was among many scientists and inventors who all had one thing in common; they all various forms of autistic like symptoms. I could talk a while about this guy, but I REALLY recommend reading this blog someone else created about this man, I have other stuff to write about (https://icarus953.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/a-study-in-people-wise-cyril/). He’s fairly famous and I’m still stunned that I ran into him in the first place. I have quite a bit of reading to do after he recommended about six mechanics/mathematics textbooks to me! Belfast is also a very interesting city, being a site of intense conflict during the Troubles of Northern Ireland. The city has a wall running through it that closes at night, separating the Catholic and Protestant regions of the city. Definitely worth a look into if you’re bored.

After leaving Belfast we got off the highway and travelled along the coast, getting great views of the classic Irish landscape. We passed Bushmills distillery, which is the oldest whiskey distillery in Ireland, as well as Dunce Castle, where they filmed House Greyjoy in Game of Thrones. Soon after we arrived at the Giant’s causeway; a rock formation consisting of around 40,000 basalt columns jutting out of the waters edge. Some of the biggest waves I’ve seen slammed up against the cliffs and columns, shaking the ground we stood on. According to legend the Giant’s causeway was a battlefield between the Irish giant Fionn Mac Cumhaill and the Scottish giant Benandoner. Pictures of these hexagonal shapes don’t really do them justice. Afterwards we sunbathed on a less crowded cliffside for half an hour while listening to the crashing waves hundreds of feet below us.

After this had a bit of extra time so our guide took us to the Dark Hedges, another Game of Thrones filming spot.

I really enjoyed the bus ride home after that. Most of the group was sleeping, so it offered me a chance to listen to some calming music while watching the Irish countryside pass by. I was so pumped that I only spent $30 dollars and managed to be in two countries and see four different breathtaking landmarks, all over a span of 13 hours on a tour that I thought would be pretty dull. I’m pretty excited for my two friends Riley Powers and Connor McCarthy; they’re both spending a semester next year studying in Dublin like Clancy. Hope I get to come back here and spend more than just a few days in Ireland, so much I didn’t get a chance to see! I also hope I can finish this Norwegian language project due tomorrow that I put off until now (12am). So much for being on the more planned and organized side of things.